I found an interesting article in the Sarasota Herald today that reflects what we have seen in the last couple of months - more and more buyers are purchasing luxury homes again.
Here are some interesting facts:
In the unincorporated areas of Manatee and Sarasota counties and on Longboat Key, builders have begun construction of 49 luxury homes [...]

Siesta Beach finally made it!
Siesta Beach was named the best beach in the United States Friday in an annual survey by Florida International University professor Steven Leatherman, who is also known by the friendly nickname “Dr. Beach.”
Siesta Beach – Sarasota, Florida
Siesta Beach is the number one beach in the 21st annual Top 10 Beach [...]

BRADENTON - The Suncoast population is booming, especially in Manatee County. That’s just one of the new things the 2010 U.S. Census is showing us.
We learned already from the census that Florida will gain two seats in congress due to its population growth. But digging into numbers for Sarasota and Manatee counties shows that we are [...]

We did it again! In a survey conducted by Portfolio.com Bradenton/Sarasota earns the designation as America’s most popular retirement destination. 
Portfolio.com devised a six-part formula to rank the most popular retirement destinations, using raw data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. The study encompassed all 157 metropolitan and micropolitan areas with at least 40,000 senior citizens. 

The [...]

The real estate crash has created some outstanding opportunities for property shoppers.
While the struggling housing market turns out to be a nightmare for many homeowners, it offers great opportunities to others who are planning to buy a home.  Lower home prices and low mortgage rates make housing much easier to afford than a couple of [...]

Following several years of robust growth earlier in the decade, home sales declined the past several years. 
Slightly more than half of foreign buyers (51 percent) purchased a detached single- family home, compared to 78 percent among all buyers nationally. More than one third (37 percent) of foreign buyers purchased a condo, 11 percent purchased a [...]

SARASOTA – Bradenton:  Condor Airlines, a German air carrier that Sarasota-Bradenton International has wooed for more than two years, told the airport on Wednesday that it will not fly locally for now. Though Condor praised the airport’s “incomparable package” of incentives and efforts, the decision by the Frankfurt-based carrier nonetheless represents a major blow to [...]

AmericanStyle magazine lists Sarasota among the top 5  Small Cities for Art.

Sarasota, Fla., has long been known as a cultural destination. Credit: Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau
Coming in at number 11 last year, Sarasota climbed into the top five with the help of AmericanStyle readers. Home of numerous art museums—including the popular John and Mable [...]

There was an article in today’s Herald Tribune about a 130% increase in condo sales in Sarasota, Florida.
Here are some highlights of this article:
In the Sarasota-Bradenton market, 239 condos changed hands, a 130 percent increase from the 104 sales that took place during the same month a year earlier.
Realtors and analysts attribute the uptick to both [...]

Following several years of robust growth earlier in the decade, home sales declined markedly in the past three years. While there are a number of factors that have contributed to the decline in sales nationally and in Florida specifically, one significant countervailing force has been the growing importance of foreign home buyers. Foreign buyers recognize [...]